Bilal Hussein Update, The AP Photographer May Be Freed
 Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Image via freebilal.org

In October of 2007, we posted our first article on Bilal Hussein.  Bilal was an Associated Press photographer who - at that time - had already been imprisoned for 18 months in Iraq.  He had not been formally charged with anything, but because he was photographing the insurgent violence in Iraq, U.S. forces labeled him a security threat and sent him to Camp Cropper near the Baghdad airport.  He was captured and jailed on April 12, 2006.  On Monday, almost two years to the day of his capture, an Iraqi judicial committee has finally heard his case, dismissed any terrorism-related allegations against him, and ordered his release.

This Saturday, it will be two years that Bilal has been imprisoned in a detainment camp in Iraq.  He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for his coverage of the Iraq War.  Fellow Pulitzer Prize winners voiced support of the petition to free him since his capture.  According to the Free Bilal Campaign, he was blindfolded for nine days while in U.S. custody, then offered to become a paid informant for the U.S. Army.

Hussein is now 36 years old.  He is still at the U.S. detention facility of Camp Cropper.  The four-judge panel ordered Iraq courts this week to cease legal proceedings and ruled that Hussein should be released immediately unless there are any undisclosed accusations pending.

U.S. military authorities have told the AP that a UN Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered the prisoner to be freed (that mandate will expire at the end of 2008).

Last year, Tom Curley - the President of the Associated Press - said, "We believe the real reason for Mr. Hussein's detention and incarceration for 19 months without charges is that he produced images of conflict in Anbar Province which the military did not want the citizens of Iraq and the United States to see."

The U.S. Military had various claims against Bilal, though, including allegations that he was in possession of bomb-making material, conspired with insurgents to take photographs synchronized with an explosion and offered to secure a forged ID for a terrorist evading capture by the military.  Bilal has maintained his innocence throughout and said he was only doing the work of a professional news photographer in a war zone.

"The Amnesty Committee took only a few days to determine what we have been saying for two years.  Bilal Hussein must be freed immediately," said Curley, the AP's president this week.  "The military must finally do the right thing by ending its detention of a journalist who did nothing more than his job.  Bilal's imprisonment stands as a sad black mark on American values of justice and fairness."

The Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that Bilal's detention "is not an isolated incident.  Over the last four years, dozens of journalists - mostly Iraqis - have been detained by U.S. troops, according to CPJ research.  While most have been released after short periods, in at least eight cases documented by CPJ Iraqi journalists have been held by U.S. forces for weeks or months without charge or conviction."

Jawed Ahmad, a 22-year-old employee of Canada's CTV television network, is also still being held; he was arrested by U.S. military in October of 2007.

On a personal note:  I stand, and always will stand, in support of our U.S. troops.  But in this "different kind of war," I worry over our increased detention beds, and ache for any innocent that might have to go through the loss of time and humanity that can result from being a prisoner in a time of war - especially without trial.  So while I pray that every U.S. soldier has the moral compass necessary to guide them through this difficult time with enemies unknown, I am also praying for any detainees (and their families) who might not have the weight of guilt, but haven't had the chance to be proven innocent.

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